John Menadue

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

John's recent articles

Japan and the denial over comfort women. Guest blogger: Susan Menadue Chun

In a speech at the United Nations in September 2013, Prime Minister Abe conveyed Japans willingness to be involved in U.N security actions. He also emphasized Japans commitment to oppose sexual violence against women in war zones. Strangely, he didnt mention comfort women, also known as sexual slaves, women who were forced to provide sex to the Japanese Imperial Army in WWII. How many lies must be told to cover up the truth? The sex slave issue has become an international gender issue of grave and continuing concern. This issue needs to be confronted. In the past month...

Bushfires and climate change. John Menadue

Last week, the Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, was really trying to tell us that black is white. He attacked Adam Brandt who had said that the bushfires in NSW were part of a pattern of more extreme weather caused by climate change. Brandt added that the government should not embark on dismantling sensible policies to limit global warming. What Brandt said was entirely consistent with the very strong advice that we have been receiving for many years from the best climate scientists in the world about weather changes. Having an indefensible policy called Direct Action on climate change; Minister...

Why Iranians join the refugee queue. Guest Iranian correspondent Nadia S Fosoul

In my country Iran, many dads take two jobs. They work hard so that their kids can check more items off their wish list. Moms like other moms in the world sacrifice their comforts for the sake of their children. Despite this, according to UNHCR data (immigrationinformation.org) the number of Iranian youth seeking asylum around the world has more than doubled since 2007. In 2012 nearly 20,000 Iranian sought asylum. Iran has thus, laid claim to producing one of the highest rates of brain drain in the world. Simultaneously Iran is one of the world's largest refugee havens, mainly for...

What's in it for me? John Menadue

Last year in London Joe Hockey said that we had to break free of our culture of entitlement. He said. The problem arises...when there is a belief that one person has a right to a good or service that someone else will pay for. It is this sense of entitlement that affects not just individuals but also entire societies. And governments are to blame for portraying taxpayers money as something removed from the labour of another person He repeated much the same last week in his first visit as Treasurer to Washington. He made it clear that all Australians had...

The eye of the needle, politicians, and Confucius. Guest blogger: Milton Moon

Milton Moon is an eminent Australian potter. A Master of Australian Craft. My current reading is dominated by the superb collected essays of Simon Leys, under the title The Hall of Uselessness. (An indication of just how small the world has become it was recommended to me by a Jewish friend, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst living in New York who also uses Zen meditation as part of his therapy.) For those who dont know, Simon Leys is the pen-name of Belgium-born Pierre Ryckmans, a sinologist and long-time resident of Australia. In the 1970s he taught Chinese literature at...

The apathy and hostility of South Koreans to their Northern cousins. Guest bloggers: Markus Bell and Sarah Chee

In every way, Yu Woo-seong was a model defector. In his early 30s, he was smart, friendly, ambitious and well-liked. Despite the fact that he had been in South Korea for less than six years, Yu managed to work through his university studies while adapting remarkably well to his new environment, finishing his bachelors degree in 2011. While taking on organizing roles in a number of Seoul-based clubs and organizations created by North Korean defectors to help new arrivals, Yu gained entry into a masters degree program, majoring in education in social welfare. Less than one year into his graduate...

Even-handed Tony Abbott. John Menadue

In his toxic language over asylum seekers in the last three years, Tony Abbott has been not only derogatory about vulnerable people fleeing persecution, he has also gone out of his way to insult our neighbours in their handling of asylum seekers. He has shown no favouritism. He has insulted them all. Within the last two weeks he has offered contrition to three regional leaders for his insulting language about their policies and performance. He has described his insults as really only part of a rather intense party-political discussion in Australia. That is sheer evasion. It has been Tony...

A somersault - back to business as usual. Guest blogger: Arja Keski-Nummi

While in opposition Tony Abbot conducted a robust and aggressive policy on boats that effected Indonesia. But now he has done a somersault in order to put the Australian-Indonesian relationship back on a more even footing. As his speech at the official dinner portrays he has gone to the other extreme and engaged in rather sycophantic toadying. Tony Abbotts robust approach to people smuggling and asylum issues in opposition reflected his focus on domestic politics where he was using this issue opportunistically in a volatile political environment and with one eye on the elections. As a result the foreign...

Sri Lanka - the civil war may be over but peace has not returned.

The Australian government in cooperation with the Sri Lankan government and its security services has been returning asylum seekers to Sri Lanka. They are called 'voluntary returnees'. Increasingly however, doubts are being expressed by many commentators about the continuing plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In the following article, published in Catholic News on September 12, Father Regno, Director of the Catholic church's social work in the Jaffna community, and other commentators describe the plight of many Tamils. John Menadue. Like many ethnic Tamils in northern Sri Lanka, for the last four years Reverend Father Regno Bernard has been...

One-liners won't work in Jakarta. John Menadue

In his meeting with President Yudohono tomorrow, Tony Abbott will find that his one-liners that have been so successful in Australian politics will not have traction in Jakarta. It will require a lot more subtlety than stop the boats and axe the tax. Our Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop has already been shown how Indonesian society and politics work. She was outflanked by the Indonesian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marty Natalegawa, who completed a doctorate at the Australian National University in Canberra. He understands Australia and Australian politics very well. At her meeting with Marty Natalegawa in New York, Julie...

Reflections on the Senate Election. Guest blogger: David Combe

David Combe was National Secretary of the ALP, 1973 to 1981 As the composition of the new Senate which will sit from July 1, 2014, becomes clearer, my mind goes back to two earlier Senates which took office 40 and 30 years earlier, and which were elected in double dissolutions of the Parliament. The election of May 18, 1974 is mainly remembered because it made Gough Whitlam the first Federal Labor Leader to take the party to victory at successive elections. At the time, our joy was tempered by the narrowness of the majority achieved in the House...

Is it class warfare or an appeal for fairness? John Menadue

It depends on your point of view. Conservatives and the wealthy often see attacks on their privileged position as class war. Others see it as the pursuit of justice and fairness. Lets look at some who have recently spoken about class warfare. Andrew Forrest said that the Mining Super Profits Tax was class warfare. Christopher Pyne said that asking privately funded schools to reveal financial details was class warfare. The education activist, Kevin Donnelly said that the Gonski Report was class warfare. Some business representatives have described the new Fair Work Act as class warfare. Both Mathias Cormann,...

Fukushima - the trouble when regulators and operators are too close. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

Speaking in support of Tokyos bid for the 2020 Olympics, Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on 7 September that the situation at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station was under control. Recent disclosures, however, about leaks of radioactive water from storage tanks at the site and the contamination of ground water flowing into the ocean make his claim appear brave at best and dishonest at worst. The everything is fine stance means the government is still relying primarily on the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., to see through the clean up and decommissioning process. Though TEPCO might be expected...

How the Australian media frames North Korea and impedes constructive relations. Guest blogger: Dr Bronwen Dalton

An analysis of the last three years of coverage of North Korea in the Australian media shows a tendency in Australian coverage to uncritically reproduce certain metaphors that linguistically frame North Korea in ways that imply North Korea is dangerous and provocative; irrational; secretive; impoverished and totalitarian. This frameacts to delegitimize, marginalise and demonise North Korea and close offpossibilitiesfor moreconstructiveengagement. In the event of tensions, such awidespreadgroup think around North Korea could mean such tensions could quickly and dramatically escalate. This analysis of media coverage about North Korea appearing in three major Australian media outlets,The Australian, The Sydney Morning...

Frontier War and asylum seekers. John Menadue

Launch of the 2013-14 Catholic Social Justice Statementby John Menadue11 September 2013 This statement follows the proud tradition of the Catholic Church in Australia since 1940 of calling Catholics and all Australians to act for social justice. The 65 statements issued over the years cover a great range of social justice issues poverty, violence, peace, environment, indigenous people, ageing and inequality. Many years ago GK Chesterton referred with admiration to the practice of Australian Catholics in their Justice Sundays and annual statements. This year is no exception with the call to fight global poverty. The famous...

Where ignorance is bliss ... ('tis foolish to be wise) Guest blogger Arja Keski-Nummi

The Abbott government appears to have signaled that they do not believe in nation building.   They have created a Department of Immigration and Border Protection and moved the vital settlement support services from this portfolio to be lost in a larger welfare-oriented agency. The fact is that migration and settlement are two sides of the same coin and it is this symbiotic relationship that has been fundamental to making sure that Australias migration programs have been the envy of the rest of the world. We now risk losing that competitive edge at a time when most...

Tony Abbott's debt to Rupert Murdoch. John Menadue

Media Watch of 9 September gave us a snap shot of what Rupert Murdoch did for Tony Abbott. It said the final tally of (the Daily Telegraph's) coverage in the election campaign stacks up like this.Out of a total of 293 political stories we scored only six as pro Labor. While 43 were pro coalition. On the negative side there were just five articles that we judged to be anti coalition.While a remarkable 134 were anti Labor That summary takes no account of the front page splashes that ridiculed Labor day after day. or the coverage by Murdoch's other papers...

Julie Bishop fails Economics I. Guest blogger Ian McAuley

In justifying the Coalitions cuts in foreign aid, Julie Bishop said that borrowing from overseas only to hand it back overseas was unsustainable in light of our mounting debt. That statement has glib appeal, but its a serious misrepresentation. For a start the Government does not borrow from overseas. Rather, almost all the Commonwealths revenue is sourced from taxation and other charges. The balance, used to finance counter-cyclical deficit spending or to make funds available for capital projects, is funded by Commonwealth bonds issued on the domestic market. Second, much of what Australia spends on foreign aid...

What does Labor stand for? Principles to drive policies and programs. John Menadue

Late last year I was approached by a friend who is very politically active about what I thought the ALP could do to renovate its policy platform. I discussed this request with an old friend, Ian McAuley. Together we prepared a paper Principles to drive policies and programs or What does Labor stand for? It is dated 18 December 2012. Quite deliberately, this paper was not widely distributed. It can now be found on my website . It is on the home page and also in the folder democratic renewal.It is also reproduced at the end of...

Let's hope Albo runs and wins. John Menadue

The ALP needs a ballot for its parliamentary leadership even if it takes a month or so to do so. It will be time well spent. It needs to find the right leader and continue the process of democratisation that the ALP badly needs. Those who want to rush to a quick decision on the leadership are the faction heavies and union bosses that want to continue to control the ALP and for it to continue on its disastrous course. They want control rather than power on behalf of ordinary working people. Kevin Rudd set in motion a...

The aftermath of Saturday's election. Guest Blogger: David Combe

David Combe was ALP National Secretary from 1973 until 1981 Just over a month ago, I received an email from an old friend - an ALP Life Member who belongs to the 'my party right or wrong' school of loyalists - asking my thoughts on the likely outcome of the election which Prime Minister Rudd had just called. In my reply to her, I said in part: I have not been optimistic for some time.. Unless the way things happen has changed dramatically, I still believe that once the electorate takes out the baseball bats, there is nothing...

Dodging a bullet. Guest blogger: John Young

It was going to be as bad as 1996 (when Labor lost 31 seats), a sombre Stephen Smith gravely warned us at the beginning of the ABC election night coverage. Smith ignored that a few months earlier Labor was facing its worst election defeat, at least as bad as the 2011 NSW State election. How had this occurred when the Government was competent and economy was going well? The 2010 hung Parliament does not of itself provide the answer. The answer lies in the elusive concept of trust. The 2010 coup against Rudd destroyed the public benefit...

Deconstructing the election result. Guest Blogger: Walter Hamilton

1. Labor lost the election before the Coalition won it. 2. There was a narrowing in the state-by-state differences in the two-party preferred voting ratios of Labor and the Coalition, which partly accounts for the bigger swings against the ALP in Victoria, SA and Tasmania. That is, where Labor did well in 2010 to hold ground it was more vulnerable this time around. 3. The ALPs primary vote has fallen to the low 30s, its worst result in a century. In the past six years it has hopped from one side to the opposite on key issues such...

The election - punishing bad behaviour. John Menadue

One thing the election did was to explode the perceived wisdom that if the economy was doing well, governments are seldom voted out. But the Rudd Government was. As I have written in earlier blogs. The Australian economy, by almost any measure is one of the best performing and managed in the world. Our material stand of living is continuing to rise at a rate of about 2.5% p.a. Only two days ago, The Herald Lateral Economics Wellbeing Index showed that our wellbeing rose by 7% last financial year. The index measures not only changes in income...

Asylum seekers are blocking the M4 freeway and clogging up our hospitals! John Menadue

On Monday night on 4 Corners, the Liberal candidate for Lindsay, Fiona Scott, said that asylum seekers cars were blocking the M4 highway. For readers outside Sydney, the M4 is a 40 km expressway connecting Concord and Penrith. I dont know whether to laugh or cry that such ignorance could be expressed by a candidate who could very well be a member of parliament after next Saturday, if the opinion polls are correct. The M4 carries over 50,000 cars in the morning peak per day in both directions. I have met many asylum seekers but I cannot recall...

Chemical warfare and Syria. Guest blogger: Marcus Einfeld

I never thought I would ever agree with Glenn Beck, the US shock jock from the extreme right of the political spectrum. I think he is right about the US not intervening in the Middle East again. Difficult as it is to say, President Putin is also right even if his reasons are not pure. The Americans [Administrations, not the very many brilliant and informed Americans who know better] never seem to understand the enemy, invariably miscalculate the consequences of their actions and never have an exit strategy. This time they do not even have an entry strategy. The...

Boat arrivals are down. John Menadue

You would hardly know it if you read the Murdoch papers or listened to the Canberra bureau of the ABC but boat arrivals are dramatically down in recent weeks. How ironic it would be if even before Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister, that asylum seekers arriving by boat have been reduced to a trickle. It is early days, but the figures point to a significant decline. A Department of Immigration official has been reported in one newspaper that I saw yesterday as advising that After 4236 asylum seekers arrived on 48 boats in July, the number for August...

From one Catholic to another. Guest blogger: Bishop Hurley, Darwin.

The Catholic Bishop of Darwin has expressed concern to Tony Abbott about the Coalition's policies towards asylum-seekers and people in detention. His letter to Tony Abbott follows:   Bishop Hurley letter to Tony Abbott The Leader of the Opposition The Hon. Tony Abbott MHR Parliament House RG109 CANBERRA ACT 2600 16 August 2013 Dear Mr. Abbott, I have just returned to my office from the Wickham Point and the Blaydin detention centres here in Darwin. Sadly, I have been involved with detention centres since the creation of the Woomera centre, followed by...

Excluding the ABC. John Menadue

It is disappointing, at least to me that the ABC has not been the host of the election debates between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott. Instead it is has been left to Fox News, 50% owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is keen to buy the other 50% from Telstra. When will the Murdoch monopoly end? The ABC is the most trusted media organisation in the country. It used to be the logical host for major political events. It has been out manoeuvred by the Liberal Party. In a survey by Essential Media late last year, the ABC...

We have never had it so good. John Menadue

The election campaign by the Murdoch media and the Coalition suggests that the Australian economy is in a mess. But almost all the facts suggest that we have one of the best performing economies in the world whether we measure it by economic growth, debt, inflation or employment. Now a survey just released by the University of Canberras highly regarded National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) tells us that Australian households have never been better off. The NATSEM report tells us: Australian households are 15% better off since 2008 when the Rudd Government was elected. The...

Japan's war memory. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

Japans struggle with the issue of war memory has been brought into sharp relief again amid a controversy over what children should be taught about the past. Last week the Matsue city board of education confirmed a ban placed on a famous comic book (manga) series called Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen). The boards decision allegedly was based on the fact the series contains scenes considered too violent for school children. Behind this explanation, however, lies a different story. Barefoot Gen was first serialised in 1973-1976. Set in and around Hiroshima, it tells the story of a six-year-old boy...

The phoney war over deficits and debt. John Menadue

For almost five years, Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Andrew Robb and Barnaby Joyce, have been giving us dire warnings about deficits and debt. You would think the Australian economy was a smoking ruin. But the politicking over deficits and debt has changed remarkably in the last few weeks. Early this year Tony Abbott told us that he would provide a budget surplus in year 1 of an Abbott Government. Earlier this month, he said that his government would return the budget to surplus within his first three year term. Then he said that he would return the budget to...

Japanese amnesia and the contrast with Germany. Guest blogger: Susan Menadue Chun

Our four Australian/Korean children were educated in Japanese primary schools. Every summer holiday we struggled through the prescribed homework text- Natsu no Tomo (Summers friend). In the early August segment, there were assignments regarding WWII. They stated, talk to your parents about WWII and write a composition about the importance of peace. So, we talked to our children about their Korean grandfather, how he was conscripted from Korea into the Japanese army, how he fought in the savage battles on the Truk Island, was injured and was badly treated because he was not Japanese. In retrospect, writing about a...

Returning home can be the hard part. John Menadue

In my August 1 blog I referred to the failure of many Australian companies to integrate their business and human resource strategies. Too many send executives overseas on an ad hoc basis without planning how that experience gained overseas can be used when they return as a catalyst to change the business culture of the Australian organisation. Every individual has personality. Every organisation has a culture. The grip of that culture the way we do things without thinking is remarkably powerful. It entrenches status, power, attitudes and values. It is hard to change. My experience is...

Jesuit students rebuke Tony Abbott and other old boys. John Menadue

For many years, I have been concerned that the Jesuits at St Ignatius College Sydney seem to be producing mainly conservative politicians and merchant bankers. I don't think St Ignatius would have expected that. My confidence in the Jesuits at St Ignatius has been at least partially restored by action by senior students at St Ignatius to rebuke Tony Abbott and others for 'betraying moral values on asylum seekers'. See the report of their action from the SMH below. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/tony-abbotts-old-school-hits-out-at-asylum-seeker-stance-as-betraying-moral-values-20130821-2savt.html John Menadue

Government failure in health care. John Menadue and guest blogger Ian McAuley

We have little to see for six years of reform under the Rudd/Gillard Governments. What was that about ending the blame game in health? It has been mainly muddling through with hopes dashed for significant reform in many key areas Health costs are rising rapidly, through lack of coordination and waste. Doctors provide too many services. Vested interests are rampant Mental and Indigenous health are in a serious position. Services are being delivered less equitably. Progress has been made in prevention. However, the high expectation raised by the first Rudd Government has not been realised. In our view the...

Hitting rock-bottom! John Menadue

Today Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have announced draconian measures that will inflict enormous punishment on over 30,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia over recent years by boat. These draconian policies will apply not just to future boat arrivals but will be applied retrospectively to over 30,000 asylum seekers who are already legally here. We can imagine the widespread protests if any Australian government announced retrospective changes in taxation or other important policies, but some of the most vulnerable in the world are fair game in Australian politics. What a shameful country we have become. The...

Minimizing PNG and Nauru. John Menadue

Before I outline what I suggest we should do after the federal election let me first raise a few important background issues. The Indo China program In working with Malcolm Fraser and Ian Macphee I was actively involved in the Indochina refugee program under which Australia took 240,000 people, including family reunion. It was a successful humanitarian program which most Australians now look back on with pride. It also broke the back of White Australia but did not fully banish it. It still shows up to today in a de facto form, in hostility and demonization of...

Foxing with the News, Japan style. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

On Wednesday 7 August 2013, Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged that the clean up of the devastated Fukushima nuclear power reactors was beyond the capacity of the operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). It followed the revelation that heavily contaminated groundwater is flowing into the Pacific Ocean at an estimated rate of 300 tonnes a day because of the failure of a perimeter barrier installed by TEPCO. By any measure this was a major news story. So where did it run in that nights one hour, mid-evening news on the national broadcaster NHK? Buried 40 minutes down in the...

Is something significant happening in our alignment to our region? John Menadue

It may be early days, but I sense that some significant change might be afoot. So much of our political dialogue historically has been about Australias relationship with the UK and then the US. John Howard spoke of Australia being the deputy sheriff for the Americans in our region. Tony Abbott talks about an Anglo sphere presumably linkages to English-speaking countries. But so much of the discussion in recent weeks about asylum seekers has involved relationships with our own region. In a few short weeks we have seen some quite significant developments. PM Rudd met President Yudhoyono...

One Minus One Equals Nothing - Also True in Journalism. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

As an executive journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation I was concerned on a daily basis with balance and fairness in news and current affairs coverage. I often heard it said, if both sides of politics are criticising us, were probably doing a good job, though I never embraced this mantra. In journalism, as in diplomacy, one does not ensure neutrality by being equally offensive to everyone. Similarly the counting of lines of copy and broadcast minutes, which is standard practice at the ABC during election campaigns to give equal time to the opposing political parties, to me smacked of...

Encouraging words from Pope Francis at World Youth Day in Rio. John Menadue

On Copacabana beach in Rio, Pope Francis celebrated Mass with three million people, more than the Rolling Stones or Carnivale could ever attract. With his obvious modesty he showed himself a great communicator with the young and the poor. He appealed for the rich to share with the poor and solidarity between all people. He called the bishops to accountability rather than autocracy, to walk humbly with struggling people and to meet them on their journey. (John Menadue) The following, with a minor edit is what he said to the bishops.   Before all else, we must...

The election: economy and deficits. John Menadue

In the run-up to the September 7 elections, we will hear a lot of misleading stories about the economy and deficits. My contention is that with the good luck of the China boom, the government has managed the Australian economy well. Our economic performance is amongst the best in the world. But the public debate has been side-tracked by nonsense about debt and deficits. Despite the political rhetoric and the flak from News Limited, the evidence on the economy is very clear. Australia has had six years of uninterrupted growth even through the global financial crisis. Few...

Japan's Deputy PM: 'Let's learn from the Nazis'. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton

Taro Aso, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Japan, has a clumsy tongue; its always getting him into trouble. Hes so malapropic (remember the one about people becoming so affluent even the homeless are getting diabetes), we can only shake our heads and say, Japans a funny place, before changing the channel on our Sonys. But wait a moment. Did he really say this latest thing? On Monday Aso addressed a forum on constitutional change organised by a right-wing lobby group, the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals (more on it later). He spoke extempore, as usual, with...

Our business failure in Asia. John Menadue

In my blog of March 14 on Productivity and Skills I drew attention to the failure of Australian business to equip itself for Asia. PM Rudd in his address to the National Press Club on 16 July this year put it very clearly. I am concerned that if you went through our business elites, you would not find a lot of the top 25 executives in each of our top 100 firms who have spent any of their career time serving in Asia the engine driver of the global economy through until mid-century. Remember this is the Asian...

A regional refugee instrument. John Menadue

Forgive me for repeating myself, but you might be interested in a presentation I gave on this subject in February 2012 (see below). We have talked a lot about the need for regional arrangements, but progress has been extremely slow.Our political system based on ministerial and departmental responsibility has failed us badly on refugee issues. A new approach involving civil society - NGOs, academics and others is necessary to help us break out of the awful situation into which we have spiralled. A Regional Cooperation Framework International Association of Refugee Law Judges Melbourne 3 February 2012...

Least-worst option and minimising PNG. John Menadue

In my blog of July 20, I referred to the Regional Settlement Agreement with PNG. With some reservations I described it as the least-worst option. Some were surprised at my comments. I wish it were otherwise, but in the toxic and poisonous political debate over refugees since John Howards time, we have had to face up to many unpalatable facts. The coalition has been the principal cause of this toxic situation. It broke with bipartisanship on refugees because it felt it was to its political advantage to focus our fears on the foreigner. I dont think the coalition has...

Iranians - refugees or migrants? John Menadue

In my blog of July 5, I compared the March quarter 2013 primary refugee protection visa rate for various nationalities and the finally determined grant rate. In the case of Iranian nationals the grant rate rose from 55% at the primary stage to 86% on appeal. That is 86% of Iranian boat arrivals were finally found to be genuine refugees in the March quarter 2013. Because of this I queried Foreign Minister Carrs comments about Iranian boat people being mainly economic migrants. I have had to rely on the March quarter 2013 figures as they are the latest...

Asylum seeker saga continues. Guest Blogger: Marcus Einfeld

The saga proceeds in relation to people seeking refugee asylum in our country. The latest contribution in these last few days is that we should seek changes in the UN Refugee Convention because circumstances have changed since it was introduced after WWII. The label economic migrants is being resurrected as a reason for refusing refugee asylum to thousands of people protected by the Convention. The idea that this situation can be dealt with by negotiating amendments to the Refugee Convention is fatuous. The chances of serious changes being achieved in the lifetimes of the currently displaced asylum seekers and...

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